Predicting the future of any industry is never straightforward, that includes the world of SEO. However, that doesn’t stop us from being able to look at trends and being able to have an idea on the direction of what the future of SEO holds. Here we will go through some trends we’ve noticed here at Socially Grown, as well as where they could lead us!
Artificial Intelligence on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP)
AI Overviews are currently being used on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Here’s how they work:
Information is gathered from various online sources and used to generate answers.
Links to these sources are also provided, so it is clear to see where the information comes from, and in theory, how much it can be trusted.
By providing users with answers to their searches in a fast and with a sentence based structure, Google hopes to enhance the users search experience. The AI overview essentially visits several websites for the user and creates a more refined answer to their query.
It also suggests that users could be changing the way in which they search, going from two or three carefully thought out keywords to asking the search engine specific and long keyphrases and expecting an exact answer without even having to leave the SERP.
This is in line with an increase in 0 click searches from featured snippets, knowledge panels, People Also Asked and more. These result in lower traffic to sites and they can be harmful for sites in the following ways:
Reduction in traffic
Users don’t need to leave the SERP to get the information they are looking for.
Lower Engagement with your content
If a user gets the information they are looking for without visiting the site, they will not interact with the rest of the content.
Potentially Bad for Conversions
Once again, if the user doesn’t visit the site, it could be harder for them to complete a conversion, such as a form fill, make a purchase or call your business.
Whilst all of the above is true, the user could still visit your site after reading the information in a 0 click fashion. There are also several reasons why 0 click searches can benefit your business:
Increase Brand Awareness
When your website is featured in a zero click search, your brand name will be seen at the top of the page.
Increase User Experience
Google uses zero click searches to try and improve user experience and so featuring at the top of the search results and providing useful information will create a positive impression for the user.
Experts in Your Field
If you are appearing at the top of the SERP to answer a users’ question, you will be seen as knowledgeable and as the experts in your field, again enhancing your brand awareness and brand perception.
So, what can we expect for the future of SEO in terms of AI? It looks like more and more AI will be used in the SERP and to even generate results. This leads us to the next point, search engine to answer engine.
Search Engine to Answer Engine
Whilst this is by no means a new idea that Google have had, it is becoming more and more clear that Google wants to become an answer engine rather than a search engine. This will mean users don’t click onto other websites. They instead find the answer as quickly as possible on Google. Is the next step being able to buy products directly on Google without the need for the website? Whilst of course Google Shopping is already a place where users can buy products. The question here is from the products tab, where more product information drops down with size, colour and payment options available all on SERP.
Going back to the Answer Engine aspect of Search Engines. With more users looking specifically for fast answers, it could highlight the importance of Answer Engine Optimisation, where SEOs look more at answering questions effectively, rather than broad keyphrases which have traditionally been the drivers of conversions. Conversion based keyphrases are still clearly important but AEO should be incorporated into content marketing strategies to maximise the visibility of your brand, to help your users and to be a trustworthy site. Nothing new as EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) has been around for years now.
User Generated Content
User Generated Content (UGC) has become more and more prevalent in recent years and is going to continue to grow, so it makes sense that Search Engines take advantage of this and use it. So, what exactly is UGC?
UGC is content that comes from users instead of brands, and is often a more trusted source than what a brand says, after all, a brand can say what they want about their product, but a consumer who has bought the product and gives an honest review will be more useful to another user who is moving through the purchasing decision process.
User Generated Content can consist of images, videos, reviews, comments, social media posts and more. Search Engines have been ranking these types of websites for a long time, but now with more AI and LLMs available, UGC can be picked out to help answer specific queries and products and services.
With this type of uncontrolled content becoming more prevalent in rankings and AI overviews, brands are likely to try to take advantage of this with artificially creating positive UGC, to counter act this, Search Engines will tighten their spam policies and it is possible that this could be a large algorithm update, with 2024 already having a refreshed web search spam policy documentation.
The Take Away
Being prepared for where search is heading is important for SEOs but there is no crystal ball. Having said that, 3 factors that seem very likely in the future of SEO are:
- Higher use of AI on the Search Engine Results Page.
- More searches will have an answer on the results page without the need to click onto websites.
- User Generated Content will play a larger part in answering queries with the user of AI thus, keeping users on the results page more.
- With more UGC, brands can try to manipulate this for faster results, so more spam protection will be released by Search Engines.